Quotes from Anthony Everitt

The Claudii had produced Consuls in every generation since the foundation of the Republic and over the centuries had built up a well-deserved reputation for high-handedness and violence. In one typical incident, a Claudius was leading a Roman fleet into battle. The sacred chickens refused to give a favorable omen by feeding on some corn that was put out for them. So Claudius had them flung into the sea, with the words: "If they won't eat, then let them drink.

Victories in the field," he commented, "count for little if the right decisions are not taken at home.

The general was sufficiently impressed by the young man to ask him to go back to Italy with him. His back to the wall, Atticus for once in his life refused to do a powerful man's bidding. "No, please, I beg you," he replied. "I left Italy to avoid fighting you alongside those you want to lead me against." Sulla liked his candor and let the matter drop.

Cicero had lived through terrible times and his fundamental aim was to make sure that they never returned. He stood for the rule of law and the maintenance of a constitution in which all social groups could play a part, but where the Senate took the lead according to ancestral tradition.

Wine was served during the meal (rich and heavy, it was usually diluted with water), but the real drinking began once the food had been cleared away. This was the commissatio—a ceremonial drinking competition at which goblets had to be drained in a single gulp. Healths were drunk. This was the time for conversation and debate, which might last well into the evening, and was the Roman equivalent to the Greek symposium.

From his childhood on he had had an obstinate nature and his name became a byword for virtue and truthfulness. "That's incredible, even if Cato says so," was a common expression.

vital political truth: military victory can be secured only by reconciliation with the defeated. Although most empire-builders in the ancient world

For most people bedtime was early, although Cicero admitted to writing speeches or books and reading papers at night (there was a Latin word for it, lucubrare—to work by lamplight).

For him, bravery was not an assertion of collective defiance and solidarity among colleagues but a solitary, obstinate act of will.

Livy's worldview was moral and romantic, and most thinking people of his age shared it. In the preface to his magnum opus, he stated that writing history was a way of escaping the troubles of the modern world: "Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every kind of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective.

Turn not your country's hand against your country's heart!

dubious means might subvert virtuous ends.

Personally, I am always very nervous when I begin to speak. Every time I make a speech I feel I am submitting to judgment, not only about my ability but my character and honor. I am afraid of seeing either to promise more than I can perform, which suggests complete irresponsibility, or to perform less than I can, which suggests bad faith and indifference' (Cicero in Everitt, 58).

in Roman culture. There was a widespread belief that traditional values were being undermined by foreign immigrants. The decadence that was perceived to permeate the Republic

Supreme Good and Evil (De finibus)

He told an amusing story against himself about an incident on his journey home, a reminder that his thirst for recognition was redeemed by an endearing sense of the ridiculous.

Like Caesar, he was loyal but with this difference: he liked to do good by stealth, behind the scenes.

Rome was an evolutionary society, not a revolutionary one. Constitutional crises tended to lead not to the abolition of previous arrangements but to the accretion of new layers of governance.

It was about such people that he complained to Atticus: "I will only say this, and I believe you know I am right: it was not enemies but jealous friends who ruined me.

In the months that followed he brought a rapid succession of cases to court—as he recalled, "smelling somewhat of midnight oil.

An incident occurred while Cato was speaking which caused much amusement at his expense. A letter was brought in for Caesar, and Cato immediately accused him of being in touch with the conspirators. He challenged him to read the note out loud. Caesar simply passed it across: it was a love letter from Servilia, Caesar's mistress at the time and Cato's half-sister. Cato threw it back angrily with the words: "Take it, you drunken idiot.

A piece of land not so very large, with a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and up above these a bit of woodland.

Perusian war proved that Antony and his supporters

investigation into the future can make it possible to avoid unpleasant events.